High School Teams Battle For Playoff Positioning

By Elio Velez

By Elio Velez

Mary Louis Academy and Bishop Kearney can't seem to separate themselves in the Brooklyn/Queens CHSAA Division I this season.

With Christ the King easily capturing the division title at 12-0, the Tigers and Hilltoppers finished in a tie at 8-4 for second place. Mary Louis Academy lost at Archbishop Molloy 52-45 last Monday night and Bishop Ford defeated Bishop Kearney 62-57 the next night to create the tiebreaking scenario. And that is not enough to decide who will be seeded for the playoffs.

Now both Mary Louis and Bishop Kearney will have to play a tiebreaker game, which was decided after the paper went to press, on who will be the second and third seeded playoff team in the BQCHSAA Diocesan playoffs that starts on Tuesday.

The winner of the Mary Louis and Bishop Kearney game, which was held at a neutral site at Archbishop Molloy, will play the seventh seed Bishop Loughlin on Tuesday at Bishop Ford.

"The bottom line is whatever team plays better will win," says Bishop Kearney head coach Cathy Crockett.

The third seed team will play sixth seed St. Francis Prep. Archbishop Molloy and Bishop Ford, who both ended the season at 6-6 in the division, will be the fourth and fifth seed respectively.

There is a chance that Mary Louis Academy and Bishop Kearney, who split the two regular season contests, can face each other in the next round on March 8 if both advance in the quarterfinals.

Christ the King gets a bye and plays the winner of Molloy or Ford on Thursday.

Sport Shorts: The first opportunity for Jeff Kramer, coach of the Beach Channel indoor track team, to experience the PSAL track and field championships in the Armory did not go the way he expected.

Though he admits his team is still young and learning the ropes, the Dolphins did not finish the season on a strong note. The 4x200 meter team finished 19th out of 23 teams overall.

He still retains the optimism for next year as Walter Williams is the lone senior out of the young core to graduate.

"Our team is young and Devon Moore and Terrence Sutton will get more experience next year," Kramer describes of his two key sophomores who will compete in this weekend's PSAL freshmen/sophomores championship at the Armory.

"We were successful that we made to the city championship after no team from here made it last year," Kramer, who finished his first year as head coach, said.

Basketball: Ryan Pearson, the Rockaway resident who stars for Christ the King, scored 27 points but it wasn't enough as Holy Cross claimed the Brooklyn/Queens CHSAA Diocesan championship 80-69 at Bishop Ford High school last Friday night.

Megan McKenna, Celeste Roberts and Michelle Cashen are the Rockaway residents who will lead the Midwood Lady Hornets against Abraham Lincoln in the quarterfinals of the PSAL 'AA' playoffs at Hunter College, 2:30 p.m. on Sunday.